Officials: Gangs are meeting in wooded Freeport area

Authorities found clear evidence that gangs are meeting in a wooded area of Freeport after multiple law enforcement agencies searched the area Tuesday.

More than three dozen state and Nassau police officers, along with K9 units, searched the Roosevelt Preserve for nearly six hours. Police say members of Nassau's Fugitive Squad as well as the Missing Persons Squad had to cut through the dense brush with machetes.

Police say they found gang tags for MS-13 and several other gangs in the wooded area near Commercial Street and Lakeview Avenue.

"What we're doing is we're looking at any location that would serve as a meeting spot to either recruit or to associate members of gangs," said Detective Lt. Richard Lebrun. "We're going to aggressively look at all of these wooded areas to make sure there's no recruitment going on and if there's a meeting, we're going to stop that meeting."

Tuesday's search comes almost a month since high school students Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas were found dead in Brentwood. Police say they were the victims of gang violence.

Authorities say they found people living in the wooded area and have contacted social services to help them.

They say its the third time they have searched the area for gang activity.